Clearing the Air: Climate and your pocketbook

Here's the fifth in our ten part series Clearing the Air for the West Kootenay Climate Hub

Thanks to Tia Leschke for writing this piece, and to the rest of the group for their editorial work. Here’s a link to the article in Rossland News.

The cost of living here in the Kootenays is skyrocketing, as it is everywhere. The price of common goods has gone up and will keep doing so.

While many factors contribute, extreme weather events brought on by climate change have made this much worse. The carbon tax is responsible for very little of this inflation — just a 0.5% increase since 2019, according to a recent University of Calgary study. Compared to other influences, this is a drop in the bucket. If we don’t understand the root causes of the affordability crisis, scapegoating the carbon tax won’t help.

Let’s look at some examples of how the climate crisis contributes to rising costs for everyone.

Violent weather cost the world $2 trillion over the past decade and $451 billion over the last two years. The staggering losses from the Los Angeles fires are expected to be upward of $150 billion, according to CBC.

The cost of wildfire protection in Canada exceeded $1 billion a year for six of the last 10 years. According to a 2022 report by the Canadian Climate Institute, climate change will increase average household expenses by $720 per year by 2025 and up to $2,300 by mid-century.

Closer to home, the Okanagan and Creston Valleys lost their soft fruit crops to extreme weather last year, with devastating financial impacts. Many orchards lost so many trees they won’t be replanted. The wine industry was also badly hit.

In the Kootenays, many people were evacuated because of the wildfires last summer. At least one home was completely destroyed, and people lost outbuildings, forests, gardens and water systems.

Blaine Cook, for example, lost acres of his forest north of Slocan to fire. This will be expensive to replant because the fire was so hot it destroyed the soil, forcing him to import new soil. Insurance doesn’t cover this kind of loss. Property owners who want to sell will see their property values decline, even if their houses were undamaged.

The Slocan Valley’s economy depends on tourism, with many businesses earning up to 80 per cent of their income in summer. Between the evacuations and smoke, these businesses suffered as tourists stayed away and events were cancelled.

Niko Bliss, the owner of Bliss Cafe in Slocan, lost thousands of dollars in revenue and products. “Staff did not have any work or get paid for over two weeks,” said Bliss. “It's not just the two weeks, it's weeks beforehand and after. I could try to claim more with the insurance company, but in the end it's not really worth it. And I've heard that once you claim anything due to wildfires, then they remove it from the policy."

The Slocan Lake Arts Council cancelled six out of eight planned concerts last summer, with losses over $15,000. The Hidden Garden Gallery cancelled five out of 10 planned exhibitions, and the Valhalla School of Fine Arts lost over $70,000.

As these unnatural wildfires become an annual reality, business owners and organizations will be thinking hard about climate change risks when planning for next summer.

Home insurance is getting pricier because of wildfires and floods, affecting homeowners and renters. Insurance may soon become unavailable for many homes. In southern California, insurance policies were cancelled for 72,000 homes because of wildfire risk, according to CBS. Try selling your home when it can’t be insured.

According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the summer of 2024 shattered records for severe weather and wildfire losses in Canada at over $7.7 billion. For every dollar of insured losses, taxpayers are on the hook for three times that in rebuilding infrastructure.

The amount that governments spend dealing with climate change (fires, floods, heat domes, etc.) is going up. In 2023 alone, the B.C. government spent $1.1 billion on wildfire response and $400 million on flooding and other disaster response.

Firefighting costs are just the tip of the iceberg. The total costs of a wildfire can range from six-to-30 times the suppression costs. They can include evacuation, destruction of homes and infrastructure, loss of timber, sterilization of forest soils, and increased flooding, erosion and landslides. That doesn’t even include mental health impacts.

Wildfires also cost the Canadian health system. For example, a single week of wildfire smoke in June 2023 cost Ontario an estimated $1.28 billion in increased health costs.

Both public and private sectors are waking up to this new climate reality. Addressing the root causes of climate pollution — including burning fossil fuels — is critical to making the changes we need for a safe climate future. We owe it to younger generations to rise to the challenge.

Tia Leschke gardens and makes music on unceded Sinixt lands in Winlaw.

photo by Chris Kolmel